Recommend a Credit Card

(Posted on 10/6/12 at 12:48 pm)

I recently paid off my truck and have no debt. I don't want to carry on with no payment history. I travel A LOT for work and would be putting a hotel and rental car on my card regularly. To give you an Idea how much would be on the card, I have been out of town for the last 4 months and could be spending 800-1200 a month for a rental car 500-1000 for plane tickets, and another 3-4k a month for hotel.

right now I am direct billing everything to my company but I would like to have a CC to help with my credit score/payment history and want something to give me some type of rewards for the amount I would be using it.

re: Recommend a Credit Card (Posted on 10/6/12 at 1:39 pm to DieselTiger1)

quote:I don't want to carry on with no payment history.

Why not? I pay cash for everything and my credit score is over 800. "If you don't have a credit card, you will have a bad credit score" is such a ridiculous myth. Don't buy into it.

If you want a CC for convenience that's understandable. Rewards? Meh - that only encourages you to spend more money. The extra you spend frivolously negates any cash back you get. If you are disciplined to only use if for business expenses and necessities then that would be beneficial. But most people use a credit card to make a spontaneous purchase they would not have otherwise made with a check or cash. And no, that's not my opinion, that's based on a study by Dunn & Bradstreet.

To the OP: if you stay at one particular hotel chain a lot, I would suggest you get the Amex version of that hotel chain. Also, if you are putting that much on it, it is probably worth it to pay an annual fee.

re: Recommend a Credit Card (Posted on 10/7/12 at 9:12 am to foshizzle)

Reread my post, I was mainly addressing the FICO score myth. I never said "you should never under any circumstance use a credit card."

It's a fact that people with credit cards are likely to spend more money than they would if they used cash. I would rather spend spend $100 cash and get no cash back, than spend $115 with cc and get $1.50 back. As I said, cash back programs encourage you to spend, not save. CC's foster impulse purchases - that is not my opinion, that is a proven fact. If it wasn't you wouldn't hear a thousand commercials a day from lawyers peddling bankruptcy services, and credit consolidation agencies offering to help you get out of credit card debt.

If you are truly disciplined enough to never use a card frivolously or excessively, then yes, it's a good idea, and you win. And if he is spending thousands every month on business expenses, then yes he can take advantage of rewards programs - as long as he doesn't make one or two unnecessary purchases that would negate every dime of cash back he earned.